New Poll Puts Indonesia’s Subianto Ahead in Presidential Race

Prabowo Subianto, retired Indonesian army general and the leading presidential hopeful.

JAKARTA—A new survey has put general-turned-businessman Prabowo Subianto as the front runner to succeed President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the country’s next election.

Indonesian Network Election Survey said Monday that 19.8% of the 6,000 people it polled in October said that if the elections were held today, they would vote for the controversial but charismatic Mr. Subianto. The leader of one of Indonesia’s smallest political parties is topping some political polls as Indonesians start thinking about who they will choose in elections scheduled for 2014.

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Former President Megawati Sukarnoputri came in second place, favored by 13.2% of respondents, and the current Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa was third as he was picked by 11.3% of those surveyed.

Mr. Subianto was a feared military commander in the 1990s. The former son-in law of Indonesian dictator Suharto was asked to step down after accusations that he was behind crackdowns against democracy activists in the late 1990s, but he was never publicly charged with wrongdoing. He said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he hasn’t been involved in any human-rights abuses.

Analysts say the results suggest Indonesians are looking for a stronger hand to lead the country. President Yudhoyono this year failed to get the political support push through an unpopular but much-needed increase in government-subsidized fuel prices. Some observers say the president has been too slow to reprimand politicians in his own party that have been accused of corruption.

Political analysts suggested that Mr. Subianto should pair up with another front-runner to strengthen his chances.

“The survey results could suggest that pairing Prabowo with Hatta Rajasa will be the most promising couple for the 2014 election,” said Maruly Hendra Utama, a sociologist from University of Lampung.

Of course anything could happen in the next two years and it wouldn’t take much to pull ahead of the candidate that despite being front runner is still only preferred by one in five of those surveyed.

“Only Prabowo (came) close to 20%,” the polling company’s director for data Sudrajat Sacaawitra said. “This shows that we still don’t have an electorally strong figure to become president.”

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